Second law, Landauer's Principle and Autonomous information machine

Shubhashis Rana, A. M. Jayannavar

Published 2016-11-07Version 1

Second law of thermodynamics can be apparently violated for systems whose dynamics depends on acquired information by measurement. However, when one consider measurement and erasure process together along with the system it saves the second law. We consider a simple example of information machine where information is used as a resource to increase its performance. The system is connected to two baths, a work source and a moving tape which is used as an information reservoir. The performance of the device is autonomous. The system acts as an engine, erasure or refrigerator. Even combination of any two is possible. All these possibilities are allowed by generalized second law.